...strengthening rural health through research Sudbury Ontario Canada Northern Health Research Conference June 4-6, 2015 Timmins ON Does a Northern Education Produce Northern Physicians? Exploring Practise Locations of Recently Graduated Family Physicians in Ontario Patrick Timony, MA 1 Elizabeth Wenghofer, PhD 1,2 John Hogenbirk 1 1 Centre for Rural and Northern Health Research (CRaNHR), Sudbury ON 2 School of Rural and Northern Health, Laurentian University, Sudbury ON

Strengthening rural health through research Conflict of Interest Declaration: Nothing to Disclose Presenter: Patrick Timony Title of Presentation: Does a Northern Education Produce Northern Physicians? Exploring Practise Locations of Recently Graduated Family Physicians in Ontario I have no financial or personal relationships to disclose

Strengthening rural health through research Introduction Physician shortages and maldistribution in Northern Ontario Recruitment and retention literature:  Location of education  Rural exposure One of NOSM’s key goals was to encourage newly trained physicians to practice in rural and northern regions NOSM Tracking Study – now entering 11 th year First 4 cohorts of NOSM’s family medicine students are now in full practice

Strengthening rural health through research Research Question Are NOSM undergraduates (UGs) and NOSM post-graduates (PGs) more likely to locate their practices in rural and/or northern Ontario than physicians who received training from other Canadian institutions?

Strengthening rural health through research Methods Ethical Approval = Laurentian University REB 2013 physician registry and Annual Membership renewal survey  Age, gender, French  UG and PG locations  Primary practice location (postal code)  Year of UG graduation (post 2009)  All certified family physicians (FPs) in Ontario… CPSO Data

Strengthening rural health through research Methods MEDICAL SCHOOL UG and/or PG training at NOSM vs. elsewhere in Canada Categorized sample into 4 medical school groups: 1)NOSM/NOSM 2)NOSM/Other 3)Other/NOSM 4)Other/Other

Strengthening rural health through research Methods PRACTICE LOCATION Primary practice address (postal code) Link with Statistics Canada data North = Practices located within NE LHIN or NW LHIN boundaries Rural = Practices located outside census metropolitan areas (CMAs) and census agglomerations (CAs) Categorized sample into 4 practice location groups: 1.Rural North 2.Rural South 3.Urban North 4.Urban South

Strengthening rural health through research Analysis Main outcome = Primary practice location X Medical School Category Statistics:  Descriptive for age at graduation, gender, French practice language by practice location  Differences Medical School Categories

Strengthening rural health through research Results: Study Population Characteristics Medical School Category % of Total Sample (n) Mean Age (s.d.) † % Female% French* NOSM/NOSM 6.7 (36)35.8 (6.7) NOSM/Other 2.6 (14)36.6 (7.6) Other/NOSM 3.2 (17)32.2 (4.0) Other/Other 87.5 (468)31.5 (3.0) Total 100 (535)31.9 (3.8) † ANOVA p< % (67) * Fisher’s Exact Test p=0.048 Older

Strengthening rural health through research RESULTS: Primary Practice Location n=535 % of Physician in each Location per Medical School Category (n) * TOTAL % Location NOSM/ NOSM (36) NOSM/ OTHER (14) OTHER/ NOSM (17) OTHER/ OTHER (468) Rural North (20) Rural South (45) Urban North (45) Urban South (425) TOTAL % Medical School 100 * Fisher’s Exact Test= ; p<0.001

Strengthening rural health through research Conclusions NOSM UG or NOSM PG = rural or northern Ontario  Any NOSM exposure = in rural and north.  NOSM UG = Rural distributed education/clerkships? selection process (i.e. rural backgrounds)?  NOSM PG = North PG experience may be more influential than UG experience.

Strengthening rural health through research Conclusions Implications for student selection and curriculum design  if we are selecting the right ones and they are staying  NOSM must be doing something right If it works with MDs, then why not with other providers?  health provider training in northern and rural areas Celebrate successes  it seems to be working  it seems that money was well invested

Strengthening rural health through research

...strengthening rural health through research Sudbury Ontario Canada Questions and Comments are Welcome!